Don Juan Carlos will return to Sanxenxo for the regattas but this time he does not plan to visit Madrid
MADRID, 18 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The King Emeritus will arrive in Spain this Wednesday in what will be his second visit since he moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August 2020 and he will do so ignoring the discomfort that his trip has caused in Zarzuela, who already after the first visit he had asked Don Juan Carlos for more discretion in his future trips.
According to the sources consulted by Europa Press, the trip of Felipe VI’s father has generated “discomfort” in Zarzuela, where news of the plans to travel again to the Galician town of Sanxenxo was reported by the press without prior communication of his intentions to the House of the King.
In Zarzuela they consider it particularly “inopportune” that the visit take place at this time given the proximity to the regional and municipal elections on May 28 and therefore in the pre-election period, although they recognize that it is a personal decision of the King’s father and frame it in his private life, as the Government has also done.
The first visit that Don Juan Carlos made to Spain at the end of May of last year had already caused discomfort in the Casa del Rey, due to the expectation with which all his movements were followed during his stay in Sanxenxo and the interest aroused, very far from the privacy with which he had stated that he wanted this type of displacement to take place.
This is how Felipe VI made him see it in the meeting that both held in Zarzuela on May 23. After it, the Casa del Rey reminded Juan Carlos in a statement that in his letter to notify him that Abu Dhabi would be his permanent residence, he had also told him that when he visited Spain he wanted to do it with “the greatest possible privacy.”
Then, the message apparently reached the emeritus, since he did not return in June for a new regatta as had been anticipated, and in the following months he has maintained an unusual silence, without resorting to his closest entourage to convey messages about his intentions or about his life in Emirati exile.
It took almost a year for Don Juan Carlos to set foot on Spanish soil again, although in this time he has had the opportunity to meet the King twice, in September at the funeral of Elizabeth II in London and in January at the Constantine of Greece, brother of Doña Sofía.
As happened the first time, the emeritus will land in Vigo, from where he will travel to Sanxenxo, where he is expected to remain until Sunday. However, unlike a year ago, it does not seem that a family reunion in Madrid is planned. At least, in the official agenda of the Kings there is no event of this type.
As Europa Press has learned, the arrival of the emeritus at the Peinador airport, in Vigo, will take place at 12:00 on Wednesday. The former monarch will land from London, where on Monday night he went to an exclusive club accompanied by friends and where tonight he is expected to attend the clash between Real Madrid and Chelsea in the Champions League.
From Vigo he will move to Sanxenxo, where a priori he will remain until Sunday and will attend the regatta to be held this week in this city in which his boat, the ‘Bribón’, will participate in the Spanish Cup. Don Juan Carlos, 85, would have the intention of going back on board the ship at some point during his stay.
But apart from that, there are not many more details about his visit. Contrary to the previous occasion, his good friend and president of the Real Club Náutico, Pedro Campos, has kept a sepulchral silence since the news leaked that Don Juan Carlos would move to Sanxenxo and he has not wanted to confirm if he will be again your host, staying at his residence.
Nor does the mayor of Sanxenxo, Telmo Martín, seem to be aware of the details of the visit. “Nobody has told me anything”, he has acknowledged this Tuesday, while he has said that the former monarch will be received in the town “as one more citizen”.
In the Government, they have also adopted a less assertive position on this occasion, framing the visit in the private sphere. However, the spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, has clarified that the Government continues to be of the opinion that Don Juan Carlos should provide some kind of explanation for his activities in the past.
“The Government has expressed its opinion on multiple occasions regarding the facts that were known a long time ago about the conduct of the emeritus King and we continue to hold the same opinion,” he said last week. Already after the first visit, the spokeswoman for the Executive considered that the former monarch had lost the opportunity to provide the “response” that the Spaniards expected.
Apart from this, Moncloa did not want to comment on the visit, a personal decision of the emeritus, waiting to see how it finally goes. The same has not happened with its government and legislature partners.
The president of the United Podemos parliamentary group, Jaume Asens, has described the trip as “unfortunate” and has insisted that “he has not given any explanations”, while the group’s co-spokesman has considered that his visit is “indecency” and a “discredit”. “He should be giving explanations and not walking around in regattas”, he has defended.
For the ERC parliamentary spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, the visit “demonstrates the impunity” of Spain because “everyone knows that (Juan Carlos I) promoted corruption in the last 40 years and thought that part of this country was his.”
For her part, the spokeswoman for EH Bildu, Mertxe Aizpurua, has censured the “media shows” that provoke the visits of Don Juan Carlos, at the same time that she has demanded that the Government revoke his title of king emeritus for “democratic hygiene”.
In the opinion of the PNV spokesman, Aitor Esteban, that he comes to participate in a regatta is “one more addition to all the frivolities” that the emeritus “has shown”, while he has slipped his impression that the Royal House he wants these visits “to become commonplace.”
